Abuse of Rockford 3-year-old detailed in murder trial

ROCKFORD — Nearly constant abuse left 3-year-old Kaitlyn Head weakened in the days before her death in March 2011, prosecutors told Judge Gary Pumilia on Monday.

Kaitlyn’s muscles were sore, her feet rubbed raw with the bristles of a stiff hairbrush. Her body was scarred and half-covered with contusions.

Her now-13-year-old sister testified that Kaitlyn could no longer complete torturous exercises doled out as punishment by her mother, Melanie M. Grant, 31, and her live-in boyfriend, Duran Johnson, 40.

Johnson pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery and other charges at his bench trial before Pumilia.

His court-appointed public defenders are attempting to undermine witness testimony, show that abuse was taking place before Johnson went to live with the family, and call into question autopsy and medical information.

Grant previously pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated battery and endangering the life of a child and promised to testify against Johnson in a plea agreement under which she will serve 20 years in prison.

Kaitlyn lived with her mother and two older sisters in an apartment in the 600 block of 11th Street. Johnson lived with them from late summer 2010 until Kaitlyn’s death in March 2011.

When the children were “on punishment” for any of numerous minor infractions, food was limited to under-cooked Ramen noodles and water was limited to half a Dixie cup, Clifford said.

Misbehavior was punished with strange exercises that went on for hours at a time. One was called “Stretch it Out” that required performing a “plank,” a position about halfway through a pushup — arms flexed, back flat and butt down.

Perhaps it’s a good exercise in the gym, but Kaitlyn and her sisters were forced do it as a punishment, for hours at a time and with phone books bound by winter scarves to their tiny bodies.

They were beaten with a thick leather belt if they failed to hold the position, Clifford said.

Other punishments required the girls to hold phone books for prolonged periods or march with phone books back and forth through the residence. Drop a phone book, and the girls were often hit with it in the head.

Kaitlyn likely died a day before she was discovered on March 18, 2011, by police after a call to 911.

Rockford Police Officer Jeffrey Oberts testified that it was an odd scene for a medical assistance call — especially because it involved an unresponsive child.

“We were there for a medical emergency and there was no one there to flag us down,” Oberts said.

It took a while for Johnson to answer their frantic knocks, Oberts said.

After being allowed into the house, Oberts was told the girl had fallen down the stairs the day before. He knew the little girl he saw on a bed was dead. She was cold to the touch and she had no pulse. Oberts said he would have performed CPR but he could tell she had been dead for some time and the paramedics were already arriving.

Kaitlyn’s sister testified that she and her mother had returned home from the grocery store on March 17, 2011, to find the 3-year-old with a black eye.

Johnson told them that she had fallen face-first into a vent, the sister testified.

Her ear, which she said Johnson sometimes used to haul Kaitlyn to her feet if she faltered during an exercise, was bloodied and black with bruises. Kaitlyn was lethargic, slept throughout the day and didn’t speak, her sister said.

“She wasn’t herself,” Kaitlyn’s sister said.

She made her little sister a get-well card.

That night, Kaitlyn’s sister was summoned to her mother’s bedroom. Her mother told her to listen to Kaitlyn’s chest for a heartbeat.

She heard none.

Grant told her to listen again, she testified.

She still didn’t hear one.

“But I told her I did because I didn’t want to make her feel sad,” she said.